Armed police officers seal off the old town of Schaffhausen as officers search for an unidentified man, following an attack with a chainsaw in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 24 July 2017. According to the police at least five people were injured two of them seriously. EPA - ENNIO LEANZA

Male suspect still at large: 5 injured in chainsaw attack

AT least five people have been injured, two seriously, after a man attacked people with a chainsaw in the Swiss town of Schaffhausen.

Police said the perpetrator has been identified but remains at large after the attack, which prompted them to seal off the centre of the town on the German border.

A shop owner told Swiss newspaper Blick a man with a chainsaw was walking the streets and police later confirmed the report.

The police investigate in the old town of Schaffhausen in Switzerland, where they search for an unknown man who attacked people, Monday, July 24, 2017. Swiss police say several people have been hospitalised, two of them with serious injuries, following the apparent attack in the northern city of Schaffhausen.Ennio Leanza - Keystone via AP

Swiss police officers stand at a crime scene in Schaffhausen, Switzerland (Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann)
Police said the attack is not being treated as an act of terrorism.

The building where the attack took place is home to a bookshop and insurance and lawyers' offices. It wasn't immediately clear who or what the man's target was.

A health insurance company that has an office in the building where the attack took place said two of its employees had to be taken to a hospital, Blick reported.

"We can confirm that a man with a chainsaw came into the agency and seriously wounded two of our employees," said Christina Wettstein, a spokeswoman for insurer CSS.

"They are undergoing operations at the moment and we don't know how they are."

The company doesn't know yet whether the other three wounded people were customers or passers-by, she added. It also doesn't know whether the attacker was a customer.

Schaffhausen is a city of about 36,000 north of Zurich, near the border with Germany.

Police were alerted to the attack at 10:39am (08:39 GMT).

They cordoned off the area and ordered people to leave, and witnesses told local media they saw bleeding victims being treated by rescue crews.

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